Two companies have announced 1 terabyte microSDXC cards at Mobile World Congress 2019:
Micron's fingernail-sized card uses 96-layer 3D NAND configured as QLC (4bits/cell) storage and delivers up to 100MB/s read and 95MB/s write burst performance helped by a dynamically sized SLC cache.
WD's SanDisk's UHS-I microSDXC, meanwhile, boasts "up to" speeds of 160MB/s reads and 90MB/s writes.
[...] Random IO is up to 4,000 IOPS for reads and 2,000 for writes for both Micron and SanDisk's kit.
The SanDisk 1 TB microSD card will launch at $450 in April, or $200 for a 512 GB version.
The Secure Digital 3.01 specification defines a maximum capacity of 2 TB (2048 GB) for SDXC and microSDXC cards. The Secure Digital 7.0 specification introduced the Secure Digital Ultra Capacity (SDUC) format with a maximum capacity of 128 TB.
Also at Tom's Hardware, The Verge.
See also: 512 GB of UFS 3.0 Storage: Western Digital iNAND MC EU511
Previously: SanDisk Announces a 400 GB MicroSD Card
Half a Terabyte in Your Smartphone? Yup. That's Possible Now
Samsung Announces Production of 1 Terabyte Universal Flash Storage for Smartphones
Related Stories
SanDisk (Western Digital) has announced a 400 GB MicroSD card for $250:
In 2015, SanDisk released the world's first 200GB microSDXC storage media using TLC flash technology. Today the company announced a successor, the Ultra MicroSDXC UHS-I, which doubles capacity to a massive 400GB housed within a card roughly the size of your finger nail.
This form factor is now the de facto standard for several classes of devices that span a wide range of product types. Most modern cell phones and tablets have standardized on microSD, and the technology has also penetrated other devices, such as drones and game consoles.
This new 400GB model can hold up to 40 hours of Full HD video and has a transfer speed of up to 100 MBps. That comes out to transferring up to 1,200 photos per minute. The card also meets the A1 App Performance Class specification built by the SD Association to ensure high random performance. The specification insists that products carrying the logo can meet or exceed 1,500 random read IOPS and 500 random write IOPS for quick loading of mobile optimized applications.
Time to update your sneakernet bandwidth calculations with this and a 787 Dreamliner.
Also at Engadget, The Verge, and PC Magazine.
Previously: Samsung Announces 256 GB MicroSD Card
Here's a challenge: do you reckon you can fill half-a-terabyte of memory using only a smartphone?
For some people, we're sure, the answer will be along the lines of “hold my beer while I set my camera to HDR mode and snap some selfies”. So the good news is that from February, you'll be able to lay out the readies on a 512 GB microSDXC card from Integral Memory.
At a transfer rate of 80 megabytes per second, you'd need more than an hour and a half to transfer a full card's worth of data; last year's 400 GB monster from SanDisk (no longer the world's biggest little memory card) still has the edge there, claiming a 100 MB/second transfer rate.
Integral's 512GB microSDXC V10, UHS-I U1 card is fast enough to meet V10 (Video speed class 10) for capturing full HD video.
Integral has put up a web page and a Spec sheet (pdf) for it.
Now we can set them up as media hubs for all.
Version 7.0 of the SD standard finally raises the storage limit to above 2 TB, which was being rapidly approached by both full size SD cards (1 TB) and microSD cards (512 GB). It also adds an SD Express mode, which can raise speeds up to 985 MB/s, from a previous limit of 624 MB/s:
Soon you will be able to purchase new SD cards with the SD Version 7.0 specification. The new specification supports up to 985MB/s of throughput, which comes courtesy of PCIe and NVMe interfaces, and up to 128TB of capacity. That's quite the jump over the current 2TB limit.
985MB/s of throughput for a simple SD card may seem ludicrous, but higher-resolution video, VR, automotive use-cases, and IoT applications are steadily encroaching upon the performance limits of today's products.
[...] The specification has reserved space for new pins for future use, so it also provides room for forward progress (PDF). The specification also accommodates up to 1.8W of power consumption, which will help boost performance. The NVMe 1.3 protocol also brings several new features to SD cards, like Host Memory Buffer (HMB), which sets aside a small portion of system memory to boost performance, and Multi-Queue support, which improves performance during simultaneous file transfers.
Press release. Also at PetaPixel.
Previously: Western Digital Demos SD Card Using PCIe Gen 3 x1 Interface for 880 MB/s Read Speed
Samsung Electronics, the world leader in advanced memory technology, today announced that it has begun mass producing the industry's first one-terabyte (TB) embedded Universal Flash Storage (eUFS) 2.1, for use in next-generation mobile applications. Just four years after introducing the first UFS solution, the 128-gigabyte (GB) eUFS, Samsung has passed the much-anticipated terabyte threshold in smartphone storage. Smartphone enthusiasts will soon be able to enjoy storage capacity comparable to a premium notebook PC, without having to pair their phones with additional memory cards.
[...] Within the same package size (11.5mm x 13.0mm), the 1TB eUFS solution doubles the capacity of the previous 512GB version by combining 16 stacked layers of Samsung's most advanced 512-gigabit (Gb) V-NAND flash memory and a newly developed proprietary controller.
It has been speculated that the 1 TB chips are destined for the Samsung Galaxy S10.
The UFS package is smaller than a microSD card (which is 15.0mm × 11.0mm × 1.0mm), so 1 TB microSD cards could be produced soon. The current record is 512 GB.
Previously: Samsung 256 GB UFS 2.0 Phone Storage is Faster than some SATA SSDs
Samsung to Offer New Type of Flash Memory Card
Samsung Announces 512 GB NAND Chips for Smartphones
SD Express will allow SD cards to reach read/write speeds of up to 985 MB/s. Now controllers for the standard are starting to appear:
Last year the SD Association published its Secure Digital 7.0 standard that defines SD Express cards. At this year's Computex, Realtek demonstrated one of the industry's first SD Express controllers for appropriate card readers. The RTS5261 chip already exists in silicon, so it is a matter of time before it is used for actual products.
[...] Realtek's RTS5261 supports everything mandated by the SD 7.0 specification and connects to hosts using a PCIe 3.0 interface. The controller can work with SDUC cards featuring capacities of up to 128 TB at sequential read/write speeds of up to 985 MB/s. Actual prototypes of SD Express cards from Western Digital/SanDisk seem to be slightly slower than that, yet still considerably faster when compared to existing SD UHS-II cards.
SD 7.1 extended Express speeds to microSD cards. Phison showed off a controller for capacities up to 512 GB:
Phison's PS5017 controller is compliant with the SD 7.1 specification, so it can be used both for SD Express and microSD Express cards. The chip supports various types of 3D TLC and 3D QLC NAND memory featuring ONFI or Toggle 2.0 interfaces, but total capacity is limited to 512 GB for some reason. Performance wise, the controller promises up to 900 MB/s sequential read speed as well as up to 500 MB/s sequential write speed, which is good enough considering types of memory that it will be used with.
It's only a matter of time before capacities hit 2 TB and above, and higher sustained read/write speeds would be appreciated.
Related: Western Digital Demos SD Card Using PCIe Gen 3 x1 Interface for 880 MB/s Read Speed
SD Association Raises Max Capacity to 128 TB, Speed to 985 MB/s Using PCIe and NVMe
Lexar Beats Others to Market with a 1 TB SD Card
Micron and SanDisk (Western Digital) Announce 1 TB MicroSD Cards (available)
Huawei Mate X vs. Samsung Galaxy Fold: Ask the Press
The folding hybrid phone-tablets are probably the biggest story to come out of Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2019.
Smartphones
Energizer 'thick boi' phone gives 50 days of battery lifeThe F(x)tec Pro 1 is a love letter to your old QWERTY keyboard phones
Oppo Demonstrates 5G Smartphone at MWC 2019
The Sony Xperia 1: A Long 21:9 HDR 4K OLED Smartphone
People Say a Weird Aspect of Nokia's New Smartphone Is Triggering Their Trypophobia
(It's a spider.)
Other
Related: Royole Beats Samsung and Others in Race to Create the First Foldable Smartphone
More on Royole's Foldable Smartphone, the FlexPai
Qualcomm Announces Snapdragon 8cx, an ARM Chip Intended for Laptops
Samsung Announces the Galaxy Fold, a Phone-Tablet Hybrid Device
Micron and SanDisk (Western Digital) Announce 1 TB MicroSD Cards
(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday February 26 2019, @03:46PM (3 children)
Secure Digital 7.1 was announced, and it includes SD Express speeds for microSD cards. So they can be up to 985 MB/s, which could make it a lot easier to actually fill 1 TB and higher capacities. However, the two 1 TB microSD cards that were just announced do not support SD Express, as you can see from the measly 100-160 MB/s transfer speeds.
https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2019/2/25/18239558/microsd-express-sd-association-new-format-speed-faster-mwc-2019-data-transfer [theverge.com]
https://www.sdcard.org/press/The_Fastest_MemoryCard_for_MobileDevices.pdf [sdcard.org]
I expect they will introduce a higher speed in the future. But with 985 MB/s, you could fill a 128 TB card in 36 hours, 32 TB in 9 hours, 8 TB in 2h15m, 4 TB in 1h8m, 2 TB in 34m, or 1 TB in 17m. That's probably good enough for the next few years, where we may be lucky to even reach 8-16 TB microSD.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by richtopia on Tuesday February 26 2019, @04:49PM (1 child)
I suspect the memory type has something to do with this. QLC is enabling the higher density and the competitive price, but the memory type fundamentally is slower and prone to lower read/write cycles.
For this much storage, the primary use case will be recording video. The current rates are actually going to be limiting when it comes to 4k content; consumer devices can record in the 100MB/s range but if you move to RAW shooting rates can climb upto 3 GB/s.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday February 26 2019, @05:46PM
An SLC cache inside the card could help it hit 1 GB/s or even all the way up to 3 GB/s if they add that in a future revision of SD Express. But that's not going to work if you are filming raw video with the intention of entirely filling the card in one go.
If this is a use case that matters, then there could be a market for a post-NAND technology put into a microSD card. Or there will be renewed attention on solving the limitations that NAND has, although overcoming them is another story.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 27 2019, @01:53PM
TLC devices built like this, creep along at 10-11 Mb/s after the SLC cache is filled. QLC will be worse.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Tuesday February 26 2019, @04:05PM (1 child)
These will be useful for taking long videos/recording audio and/or storing music/videos. Not much real use for taking pictures. Sure, it's "nice" to have a giant card that you don't ever have to replace. Right up to the point where it dies. Losing all of the pictures you've taken over the last year or two isn't cool. Whereas, if you have a smaller card, you're forced to think about more permanent storage. Another option is to just keep buying bunches of cards, which is much better than one single giant card. I nearly lost an immense number of pictures to that very issue. Thankfully, I was still able to read from the card. It just wouldn't let me write to it. The lock switch wasn't on, etc. I did a bit of research into what the best kind of card is for a camera. Professionals use smaller cards, especially for event shooting, like weddings. That way, if you lose the data on one card, you're not totally screwed.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by opinionated_science on Tuesday February 26 2019, @04:39PM
It might be cool, if in future there is a "parallel" write capability on these huge cards.
E.g. perhaps look like 4 devices and have a software raid.
Any one with knowledge comment on this possiblity of graceful degredation, vs complete failure?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 27 2019, @01:48PM (1 child)
What use is that 1TB if you need a week to write it?
(Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday February 27 2019, @06:22PM
Plenty of use.
First of all, 1 TB at 90 MB/s takes just 3h5m12s to fill. Even if it slowed down to 5 MB/s, it would still take less than 3 days to fill. Chances are good that you aren't going to have 1 TB of content just ready to plop on there. You will do it in batches.
You could put many thousands of books, PDFs, songs, etc. on there. Are you going to be deleting most of this content and adding more? Probably not. Just throw it on the card and you will be reading the content little by little.
microSD Express was announced so peak speeds could go up to nearly 1 GB/s for future cards. That speed will crash once the SLC cache is filled, but if you pace yourself, you can fill the thing fairly quickly.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]